A Lebanese Marketing Concept For Global Implementation



4Ts Of Digital Marketing Operations



By Joe Ghantous, Founder of Right Service
Version 7.5 Last Updated on 11 July 2019



Read it in Arabic Language


​In 1960 Jerome McCarthy had come up with the “4P’s of Marketing” concept that sets up controllable variables to help brands influence their buyers’ response.


After 7 years, Philip Kotler, the father of modern marketing, had popularized this concept in his book & make it the marketing bible.





Picture of Philip Kotler

After 50 years, I think the time has come to create a new marketing concept that meets the digital age & allows brands to simply manage & implement any digital marketing activity. On January 9, 2017 after 17 years of experience in digital marketing and studying the market requirements and analyzing the active digital marketing campaigns I have come up with “ The 4T’s of Digital Marketing Operations”, a Lebanese Marketing Concept That Can Be Implemented Internationally.


The 4T’s of Digital Marketing Operations is a new marketing concept that combines and derives benefits from its 4 factors of success (Tactics, Tools, Training & Tracking) to cost-effectively accomplish the operations’ desired goals and objectives.


The 4T's concept consists of builders & drivers solutions.


"Builders" solutions are designed to set the foundation for future success, lay the groundwork and create the necessary base on which you will develop your digital marketing knowledge, your brand online, differentiate it from competitors, and expand online reach and influence. (Builders solutions are represented in this concept by the ingredients of these 2 Ts: TACTICS & TRAINING). Once the foundation is in place, it will be the time for "Drivers" solutions to make things happen, represented here by the components of the remaining Ts: TOOLS & TRACKING, but you should focus on "Builders" first.


There are no more silos of marketing, everything is connected. Success depends on the integration of builders and drivers solutions.





Picture of Joe Ghantous

Think of “Digital Marketing Operations” like flying a plane!


Would a pilot take off without a flight plan, inspecting the plane and ensuring that it has enough fuel to make it to the final destination? (Tactics).


When taking off, would the pilot shut down the instrument panel and silence the radio while flight? (Tools).


Can anyone fly a plane without signing up for thorough Training?


When taking off, would the pilot turn off the radar? (Tracking).


Of course not, without a flight plan, training, radar & the instruments, especially the radio the pilot wouldn’t be able to detect any threat, know how the plane is functioning; and communicate about the flight plans. He could look out of the window (similar to what most digital marketers do today) but would not have enough scope of vision to keep the plane safe. Eventually, the pilot would be flying blind.


The same analogy shall be also followed nowadays in creating your effective digital marketing operations, representing the main pillars of “The 4T’s”.





This marketing concept is flexible and can be customized according to your business size:


1. If you have a small & medium sized company that is operating without a digital marketing strategy, then "The 4t's of Digital Marketing Operations" is your solution.


2. If you are an individual with a free profession (Doctors, lawyers, Public Figures....) then “The 4t's of Personal Online Branding” fits you, especially that nowadays the personal branding becomes the company brand.


3. If you have or a member of a big company with running digital marketing operations then “The 4T's in Reverse” is good for you to benchmark & evaluate these operations.


EACH “T” ANSWERS A DIFFERENT QUESTION AND DENOTES A GROUP OF ACTIONS ASSURING THE SUCCESS OF ANY DIGITAL MARKETING OPERATION.



TACTICS:



“How you should pave the road toward your ultimate goal?”


The first pillar of the “4Ts” representing the base part of any effective digital marketing operation. It is the “how” of everything (who, what, where, when & why), simply it is your digital marketing strategy.


TACTICS is made of the below ingredients:


• T: Target Audience: Define your online target audiences’ demographics and challenges to be targeted in all your digital marketing campaigns.


• A: Approach: Determine your main digital marketing operations’ goal with its date of accomplishment.


• C: Communication Strategy: Set up the methods of your online activities including the way to share your brand's message with the public and whom to reach.


• T: Trajectory: Assign your customers’ buying journey to understand their purchasing behavior.


• I: Influence: Help you build influence either by searching for people who have a positive impact on your target audience or through other ways​.


• C: Crisis Planning & Preparation: Preparing a crisis prevention plan to help your business stand against any online risk


• S: Situation Analysis: Review your brand's current situation, capabilities & activities to discover its strengths and overcome the weaknesses online.

Version 7.5 Last Updated on 11 July 2019



TOOLS:



"Which tools you should use to reach your assigned objectives?"


The second “T” represents the needed digital marketing tools to achieve the companies’ objectives. You know that there are numerous ways to boost your business online and hundreds upon hundreds of digital marketing tools to choose from, similar to social media, email, mobile, search engine marketing & others.


To effectively use these TOOLS, you should consider its below ingredients:


• T: Technologies: Choose the appropriate technological tools that can assure your ability for performing tasks in order to achieve your digital marketing operations’ goals


• O: Outsourcing: Whether you are a marketing manager or an owner of a small or medium sized company, outsourcing & collaborating are essential in today's marketing world. It is best to focus on your core competencies & find a great partner for the rest.


• O: Order: Set up the working module of your digital marketing operations to assure its synergy and defining the timeline for each activity.


• L: Liquidity: Assign the needed budget for the selected technologies (systems), content (message), Ads (Media spent) and people (internal and external).


• S: Simple Message: Prepare the required content for your digital marketing campaigns, which could be written content, images, designs, or videos, to educate, inform, entertain, inspire, reward and help your target audience by keeping the message clear and simple.

Version 7.5 Last Updated on 11 July 2019



TRAINING:



"How to effectively use the available tools to fulfill your goals?"


The personal computer & the internet especially the social media made everyone a producer, publisher, distributor & marketer (democratizing the digital marketing tools). Individuals and small companies can now do what just a few years ago only professionals and big companies could do.


As Keith Weed, the CMO at Unilever once said: "We have an entire generation of marketers who are faking it." There are plenty of marketers, but not enough marketers with digital skills and ability to quickly assess changes in the marketing world, adjust and adapt.


That’s why “Training” was assigned as the 3rd pillar of digital marketing operations to develop the performance of marketing professionals, build up the digital skills & knowledge of amateur marketers and transform businesses into a technology-enabled, high-performance, adaptive and agile learning organizations.


In order for this to happen, the TRAINING solution should embrace the below ingredients:


• T: Transfer Learning into Behavior: Moving from learning to results by turning the digital knowledge and skills participants learned into their behavior at work.


• R: ROE (Return on Expectation): Defining the expectation of the various stakeholders of your marketing unit before implementing the training program and demonstrate the degree to which their expectations have been satisfied after the training.


• A: Analysis: Analyze the training data before, along the way & after, so that instead of measuring what happened, you can influence what happens and maximize current and future program results.


• I: Implementation: Apply, evaluate & adjust the digital marketing skills gained from the training programs in order to enhance your digital performance.


• N: New Encouragement Package: Training can’t produce results alone. There are a number of non-training factors that are requested from stakeholders after training that include encouraging, reinforcing and rewarding the performance of gained knowledge and skills on the job. The main issue here is getting more managers to support the training and more trainees applying what they learned to get concrete and valuable results.


• I : Impact: Monitor the training final result on the participants’ job and the company’s overall digital marketing performance.


• N: Non-Stop Development: Your training program must be an ongoing, not a hit and run method. It refers to the process of acquiring, applying & constantly updating the participants' knowledge and keeping them on top of marketing industry news.


• G: Goodwill: The intention of the participants to develop themselves & their digital marketing skills and take corrective actions at work after attending the training program.

Version 7.5 Last Updated on 11 July 2019



TRACKING:



"Where to look to keep track on your route of progress to your ultimate goal?"


The last “T” is tracking. It is an essential aspect of the success of any digital marketing operation. According to a survey of senior marketing executives published in the Harvard Business Review, “more than 80% of respondents were dissatisfied with their ability to measure marketing ROI”.


For that reason, you should focus on the last but not the least “T” – Tracking. By tracking your key performance indicators (KPIs) on Google Analytics, social media and other tools you will stay on the right track during the whole operation.


TRACKING is made of the below ingredients:


• T: Target Numbers: Determine the numerical values as pre-indicators to define the coming phase success & failure.


• R: RODMI (Return on Digital Marketing Investment): Reveal the return on investment that reflects the selected key performance indicators of your digital marketing campaigns.


• A: Amendments: Make the needed corrections based on the frequent review of your tracking analytics.


• C: Conversion: Set up the primary (Macro-Conversions) intended from your operations.


• K: KPI’s: Set up your brand's leading, current & lagging indicators of the well being of your digital marketing operations.


• I: Intent Indicators: Keep your eyes on the small steps (Micro-Conversions) of the path toward your primary conversion goal.


• N: Noble Tools: Select the effective platforms needed to analyze & monitor the success of your operations.


• G: Goal Funnel: Set up the conversion process that allows you to begin isolating problems at any point in your leads' path toward their final intended destinations.

Version 7.5 Last Updated on 11 July 2019



Final Thought:


4T’s marketing concept is the success equation for creating and implementing any digital marketing operation. Its components (Tactics, Tools, Training, and Tracking) also can be considered as benchmarks in evaluating the effectiveness of your running digital marketing operations by considering the outcomes of each T as a key performance indicator (KPI), simply by grading your performance for each “T” and diagnosing your flaws. By then you’ll be aware of your weak points and in which “T” you should invest more.


For the importance and effectiveness of this concept, we at Right Service had decided to re-shape our digital marketing solutions and make them compatible with it.


#The4TsOfMarketing


Note: Every quarter of the year a new updated version will be created.



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